MPIWG
Key Definitions REEM Early Modern Medicine

Pill tile, England, 1617–1700. Source: Science Museum, London.

Key Definitions

Definitions A–Z

 

  • Genre refers to the type of text; authors often followed sets of conventions associated with particular types of texts. In categorizing genres we have used categories that would have been recognizable to early modern readers and writers. See GENRE DEFINITIONS for further information.

 

  • Occupation refers to how the author of a work identifies him or herself as a healer. The range of healers in early modern England was very wide (see OCCUPATION DEFINITIONS, coming soon) and authors often claimed more than one occupational label or identified themselves differently in different texts.

 

  • Topic refers to the subjects of the texts; we have categorized these using modern definitions such as "Reproduction" as well as period-appropriate terms such as "Astrology." See TOPIC DEFINITIONS for more detail.

 

Coming Soon: PDFs of Genre and Topic definitions